BRIDGWATER parents and children have been offered no clarity on when a faulty secondary school in their town will be replaced.

Haygrove School on Durleigh Road was forced to close part of its site in August this year after a window collapse prompted a structural survey of the site, revealing serious safety flaws in recently built sections of the school.

The Department for Education (DfE) – which constructed the school in 2020 – announced in early-December that the school would be completely replaced, with a new school being constructed in the Queenswood area of Bridgwater.

But government officials have provided no timetable for the construction of this school or specified a precise location.

Haygrove School was one of several schools delivered for the DfE under a £38m project by the now-defunct contractor Caledonian Modular.

The partial closure of the school in August meant that pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 were unable to return to school at the start of the autumn term, with many having to study at home until temporary classrooms were brought on site.

Year 10 pupils were taught at the nearby Bridgwater and Taunton College (BTC) from September 18, while Year 11 pupils were allowed to return to the Haygrove site on September.

Experts told the DfE that parts of the school might be prone to collapse should it see very high winds or an unusually heavy snowfall.

Councillor Claire Sully – who is standing in the Bridgwater constituency for the Liberal Democrats at the next general election – stated in early-December: “While it’s great that a new school is being built to serve Bridgwater, this sorry affair could have been avoided by proper investment in school refurbishment by the Conservative government.

“They seem to lurch from crisis to crisis, and far from delivering value for money, seem to have wasted millions on unsafe and crumbling school buildings.”

The DfE has not confirmed the planned location for the new school, or when construction will begin, or how much it will cost.

Local reports have suggested that the existing buildings will be demolished once the new school is completed – but these have also not been corroborated by the government.

Diana Barran, Baroness Barran of Bathwick – who serves as minister for school systems – said that teaching pupils in-person rather than virtually will be prioritised while the new school is being built.

She said: “I have informed school leaders that the DfE will be funding the rebuilding of Sir Frederick Gibberd College, Haygrove School and Buckton Fields Primary School.

“The new buildings will be net-zero designed to help reduce costs, minimise energy use – and they will have great indoor and outdoor facilities.

“I know this has been a challenging time for each school community and I want to thank every parent and teacher for their patience while we have been working to come to a resolution.

“We have continued to prioritise face-to-face learning during this time and to help schools through this transition phase, we are providing each school with high quality, long term temporary accommodation.

“We are also reviewing our contracts, and seeking legal advice on how we can recover the costs where that contractor was involved.”

Somerset Council was approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service but declined to comment, stating that this was a matter being handled directly by the DfE.